The name is unimportant. The way the company pushing fushigi is going about it is lame and ungenuine, but they have brought it to the masses in a bigger way than before. It is the misinformation about the ball being the magical thing which we need to correct. People are less likely to listen to those that are being antagonistic and it fails to help our cause. If we can funnel the interest in fushigi to the contact jugglers who teach it with reverence, we could turn this into a very good thing. The art form, (be it contact juggling, sphereplay, dynamic manipualtion, whatever), is a beautiful thing that has many benefits. I feel that I have become a better person because of it and have learned many things. In this way I am happy that more people have been exposed to it. The lack of authenticity behind the way they do things will cause fushigi to die out soon, but let us use the ripples they have payed to put into the american media to nurture a positive change in the world through those who really love contact juggling instead of scaring them off by being immediately brash to anyone who says the word Fushigi.. If contact juggling has taught me anything it is to go with the flow. Fushigi has a lot of energy behind it right now. We can either fight the current completely or use it to our advantage. We already have our roots firmly planted and our hearts in the right place. I vote we use this distasteful marketing scheme to our advantage.
I think that if we referred folks to sites like contactjuggling.org, sphereplay.com and others who have the essence of what it’s about right. Perhaps this would be one way we could turn something that many see now as a disgrace to their art form into something beneficial to new rollers and the community in general.
If their were a movement paying the top CJers in the world to promote, and promoting it in an authentic way that was more about the mind and body benefits instead of trickery, and it had behind it the money and advertising that Fushigi has now, I think this would be a very good thing.
-Photo (Feature): Matteacher1729 under GNU Free Documentation License
I was a teacher at the Flow Temple in L.A. where we taught poi, hoop and other flow arts. Currently I work hand in hand with Try Out Toys! I am a dancer, a hat manipulator, a Sphere player, a poi and staff spinner, a juggler, and more More from this author
